Reason #1 why the Wizard likes Bovada:

Excellent customer support

The thing that separates Bovada from the rest is its customer support. Many other online gaming companies outsource their support. It can be difficult getting a response from them, and if you do it is often slow and handled by somebody with little understanding of gambling or even of English. But Bovada’s support is handled by Bovada, and their support staff is actually knowledgeable and helpful.

I’m so confident that you’ll have a good experience with Bovada that if you have a problem getting paid and you can’t resolve it with them on your own, I’ll talk to them myself. I personally have known the Bovada management for about three years and always found them to be professional, friendly, and knowledgeable. I have also personally visited one of their call centers so I could see first-hand how they handle customer issues. (More on my mediation service.)

If you have a problem with any other casino besides Bovada, I can’t help you. I get complaints from players of other online casinos every day who have difficulty getting paid. However that isn’t my job nor my problem. If you play at Bovada after clicking through my site I’ll stand behind you 100%. Any place else and you’re on your own.

Visit Bovada

Slot Machine appendix 2

Last Update: Sep 19, 2001

From time to time I get asked specifically how to calculatethe return for a slot machine. To avoid breaking anycopyright laws I won't use any actual machine as an examplebut create me own. Lets assume this is a standard three reelelectro-mechanical slot machine with the following payofftable based on the center line:

Center Payline	Pays
Three bars	5000
Three cherries	1000
Three plums	200
Three watermelons	100
Three oranges	50
Three lemons	25
Any two cherries	10
Any one cherry	2

There seems to be always 22 actual stops on each reel ofa slot machine. The following table shows the symbol on eachstop as well as the weight.

Weight Table
Symbol	Reel 1	Reel 2	Reel 3
Cherry	3	2	1
Blank	2	3	3
Plum	3	2	2
Blank	2	3	3
Watermelon	3	3	2
Blank	2	3	3
Orange	4	3	3
Blank	2	3	3
Lemon	4	3	3
Blank	5	5	8
Bar	4	3	1
Blank	5	5	7
Cherry	2	2	1
Blank	2	3	3
Plum	3	2	1
Blank	2	3	3
Watermelon	3	2	2
Blank	2	3	3
Orange	3	2	3
Blank	2	3	3
Lemon	4	3	3
Blank	2	3	3
Total	64	64	64

There are two interesting things to note at this point.First notice that the first reel is weight the mostgenerously and the third is the least. For example the barhas 4 weights on reel 1 and only 1 weight on reel 3. Secondnotice the high number of blanks directly above and belowthe bar symbol. This results in a near miss effect.

Most of the symbols occur twice on the reel, and theblank 11 times. The following table shows the total numberof weights of each kind of symbol.

Total Weight Table
Symbol	Reel 1	Reel 2	Reel 3
Bar	4	3	1
Cherry	5	4	2
Plum	6	4	3
Watermelon	6	5	4
Orange	7	5	6
Lemon	8	6	6
Blank	28	37	42
Total	64	64	64

Given the two table of weights and the paytable it onlytakes simple math to calculate the expected return.Following are the specific probabilities of each payingcombination. Note that each virtual reel has a total of 64stops so the total number of possible combinations is64³ = 262,144.

3 Bars: 4*3*1/262,144 = 0.000046
3 Cherries: 5*4*2/262,144 = 0.000153
3 Plums: 6*4*3/262,144 = 0.000275
3 Watermelons: 6*5*4/262,144 = 0.000458
3 Oranges: 7*5*6/262,144 = 0.000801
3 Lemons: 8*6*6/262,144 = 0.001099
2 Cherries: (5*4*62 + 5*60*2 + 59*4*2)/262,144 =0.008820
1 Cherry: (5*60*62 + 59*4*62 + 59*60*2)/262,144 =0.153778

The average return of the machine is the dot product ofthe above probabilities and their respective payoffs:

0.000046*5000 + 0.000153*1000 + 0.000275*200 +0.000458*100 + 0.000801*50 + 0.001099*25 + 0.008820*10 +0.153778*2 = 0.94545 .

Thus for every unit played the machine will return back94.545%.

Go black to slot machines.